Monday, September 7, 2015

[Updated] Toledo, Akron, Cleveland....and now add The Detroit News to other Great Lakes newspapers telling their readers and elected officials that Waukesha's plan to divert Lake Michigan water beyond the Great Lakes basin does not pass muster:

Agreeing to the request would set a dangerous precedent.

The editorial says four Michigan lawmakers put their objections on paper; their arguments that Waukesha's diversion application does not meet standards laid out in a multi-state Compact approved in 2008 are similar to those raised for years by conservationists and others in Wisconsin, and across the Great Lakes region.In other words, there are two important matters to be protected: the Great Lakes ecosystem, and the legislative processes that carefully crafted the Compact.The first-of-its-kind Waukesha application is in the hands of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; all eight Great Lakes states' Governors must approve it after consultation with Canadian provinces before Waukesha could begin to build its costly pipeline.Which opinion makers regionally are saying is not in the public interest.Rough rougher seas ahead.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

If Industry needs to.expand in the region it should do so within the basin. The Milwaukee Water Works has TREMENDOUS excess capacity and the greater Milwaukee area could benefit economically through badly needed jobs creation.

However, the application is not relative to industrial growth in the basin. The law of the application, in this case, is whether Waukesha can demonstrate a need for Lake Michigan water.

Since Waukesha cannot meet the court order radium compliance deadline of June 2018 with a Lake Michigan diversion, but it can with the installation of HMO filtering, a contaminated water source does not meet the requirement.

And, since Waukesha's past and current primary source of water, the St. Petersburg deep sandstone aquifer has risen over 100 feet in the last 15 years, Waukesha is not without a long term sustainable source of water.

Waukesha is within one of two groundwater management areas in the state of Wisconsin. It appears that strategy has been successful.

Waukesha's application lacks consideration of a need for another source of water.

In this first test case of a Great Lakes Diversion Exception, the Compact will have been proven to be successful at exactly what it was designed to do, keep bad actors from tearing the compact up and throwing it away.

I have been reading the information on the Waukesha water diversion request and do not like it one bit. I live in Racine and just the thought of them sending treated wastewater down the Root River is disgusting. A lot of people fish the Root River and what that amount of water coming down the river could do to the environment and the fish is unacceptable. Besides there are homes close to the river that have had severe flooding with heavy rain. Heavy rain plus all that additional water from Waukesha would cause even more homes to flood. It is a bad idea.

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James Rowen's Bio

James Rowen, a writer and consultant, has worked for newspapers, and as the senior Mayoral staffer, in Madison and Milwaukee, WI. This blog began on 2/2/ 2007. Posts run also at various news sites, including The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "Purple Wisconsin."